Market Feedback Market rules: Is violating EULA/ToS of software allowed in the market?

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mehrotra.akash

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Is violating EULA/ToS of software allowed in the market?

example:
Steam accounts prohibit selling them, but its not actually 'illegal' or 'piracy'
similarly, certain Windows licenses do not allow resale or transfer,etc

Is it ok to post these in the Members Market?
Because, AFAIK EULA's are not enforcable..
 
Sorry, its not allowed. If i'm not mistaken, not following the EULA makes it illegal.

We've already been locking steam account sale threads, and OEM versions of Windows/other software.
 
mehrotra.akash said:
Is violating EULA/ToS of software allowed in the market?

example:
Steam accounts prohibit selling them, but its not actually 'illegal' or 'piracy'
similarly, certain Windows licenses do not allow resale or transfer,etc

Is it ok to post these in the Members Market?
Because, AFAIK EULA's are not enforcable..
Click to expand...
Mate violation of EULA or TOS is illegal.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

And selling of illegal items is not allowed here
8. OEM software sale not allowed, unless bundled with the same hardware it was installed on/supplied with.

9. Selling any items that are illegal in nature is strictly prohibited. Products or Software which are adult in nature are also disallowed from market.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting.. are EULAs legally binding contracts? Or just a stronger version of an agreement to game for EXACTLY 5 more minutes before hitting the books?

Case for the latter:

End-user licence agreement. Agreement between whom? The company and the consumer. Agreement may include anything the company wants: every 10th day after you purchase a product, bray like a hoarse donkey. Is not braying every 10 days illegal? Well, if the country you reside in has a law saying that every 10th day after you buy that specific product you must bray like a donkey, then yes, it is illegal. If no such law exists? You have broken an agreement, a promise you made to the company while purchasing the product. Broken promises may slowly kill your inner googoo bear, but dont necessarily mean you end up in jail. If I promise someone that i'll sit still for 15 minutes and then get up after 5, should I be considered a criminal?

Case for the former:

By clicking on 'I Agree' while purchasing, you basically executed a signature on a contract. You AGREED to bray like a hoarse donkey - possibly in addition to paying some money - in exchange for purchasing/using the product. Now, unless braying every 10 days is ILLEGAL in your country,you damn well better get brayin' or get ready to spend some quality time behind bars.

From most of what I've read, the second holds sway - with caveats. Any lawyers lurking around?
 
LOL why would violating EULA be illegal? ITs just a bunch of terms you agree to and if you break them you cant use the software anymore. Illegal is anything htat violates the law of the country!

For god's sake, lets not enforce third party eulas and TOS here. Its been this way for a long time.
 
There is more to EULA's and ToS than what you guy's seem to be thinking.

Ein said:
Case for the former:

By clicking on 'I Agree' while purchasing, you basically executed a signature on a contract. You AGREED to bray like a hoarse donkey - possibly in addition to paying some money - in exchange for purchasing/using the product. Now, unless braying every 10 days is ILLEGAL in your country,you damn well better get brayin' or get ready to spend some quality time behind bars.
Click to expand...
Let us say that you bought a software license whose EULA says that you need to bray like donkey every 10 days. Now not braying is not illegal in itself, but by not braying, you violated the EULA and the license that was issued to you stands null and void. (Remember that by paying, you didn't purchase the software, but a license to use the software and the same is subject to terms and conditions that the company imposed). If you continue using the software, you are basically using it without a license. You cannot be charged for not braying every 10 days, but you can definitely be charged for using software without a license.

Let us consider another example. The EULA says that the license is for use on one single computer at a time. You violated the EULA and installed the software on 10 of your friends computers using the same license for parallel use. The company may not charge you for violating the EULA clause, but they can charge you and your friends for illegal distribution/installation of software without a proper licenses.

Even in the worst case where the law cannot be used, the company can take suitable action on it by themselves. Lets say you paid for a service and broke the ToS, the company can stop your services, block your account etc and they won't have to pay you back either depending on how the ToS was framed.

Coming to the case of steam accounts, second hand sale of accounts is not permitted by Steam. They can ban any such account subject to them having proof that such a sale has happened. Lets say that TE allows sale of such accounts and some guy buys it and a couple of days later his account gets banned, What can the buyer do now?

The ban on such sales imposed by the TE Administration is fully justified, no matter how much people argue, things like these are gray areas and always reek of trouble.
 
then we'll have to suspend sales of jaibroken iphones, modded xboxes and psp's and the likes then ?
 
Thanks.. doubt clarified:)

btw, what greenhorn said is also valid, jailbreaking/modding also violates the EULA like selling OEM software
 
Exactly, like what greenhorn said, If you go this way, a lot of things will be banned. If the accounts are going to be banned, let the users be aware and take care instead of TE bothering with and wasting time on such things!
 
i think a case by case approach is the best. for some stuff, enforcement of EULAs is very rigid to the extent that their agents trawl forums searching for evidence of such resale, and while we really dont want to curb freedom, we really dont want to cause an undue headache to the site admins by way of legal troubles. While it might sound arbitrary. letting them decide is often the best way to go.
 
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